Absolute pitch is a complicated phenomenon. Readers of the auditory list
should not be fooled by the seeming simplicity of the ongoing discussion
of the past few days. I would recommend balancing the nature views
expressed with the interaction of nature and nurture suggested in the
paper by Diana Deutsch and collaborators in JASA last year. The
reference and abstract are pasted in below.

Regards Roy P

Martin Braun wrote:

You mean, why do so few people develop a cognitive version of absolute
pitch? Well, there are many who are waiting for the answer. Just two days
ago there appeared a large-scale survey in PNAS. Perhaps the most
compelling
new result is the clear bimodal distribution of the trait. Either people
have it, or they do not have it, with very little in between. This
indicates
the possibility of a relatively simple genetic origin of the trait, which
means that the answer may not be too far down the road.